AI War 2 v0.804 Released! “Hack Me Quickly”

This has a couple of notable bugfixes, and it tunes the balance on the hacking response from the AI waaay down. That was some game-ending level of hacking response that some folks were getting. Badger is currently in the process of reworking how the hacking response severity gets calculated anyhow, but for now we just toned down the existing mechanic since the new logic isn’t ready yet.

This version also simplifies the speed controls some, and adds in legitimate Game Speed Styles (rather like the first game had). These GSSes, rather than being like fast-forward or slow-motion (which we do also have), act as balance shifters to either make the game more frenetic or more contemplative. The default values here are the same, but there is a speed now that is Epic (quite contemplative), all the way up through Cheetah (very fast), all the way through Insane and Plaid (because why not).

Some folks feel like it’s too fast, some folks feel like it’s a little slow, and now everyone can play the way they want while leaving the in-game wall-clock alone. Except when you want to fast-forward for a bit, which obviously you can still do.

Also? Sabots are not so darn terrifying anymore, so your starships should breathe a sigh of relief.

Big Topics

It’s late and I’m quite tired, so I don’t feel like getting into these full discussions right now. But basically I am hearing what you’re saying about things like the control groups being difficult to manage, and some of the things you want to be able to control with them, build queues, etc. I’ve been thinking hard on some solutions for those, and I think there will be some good changes to come out of that. Thanks for your patience, in the meantime.

The lobby is something that I desperately want to get fixed up to a nicer state, but with all the feedback pouring in on actual in-game areas I think I am going to have to delay that a bit more than I had expected. I had figured the lobby would be done by the end of October, but now I think it’s better to say November instead. The overall game experience will evolve a lot faster and more pleasingly that way. Don’t worry, I’m not going to forget about it!

There are also some very valid concerns/wishes that folks have for more options on the galaxy map to find things easier, and some things related to making scouting easier (and/or results of scouting to be easier). Those are also on my radar, and something I’m putting ahead of the lobby right now because I think that will help everybody more directly.

Oh, and getting some of the tutorial things a bit better, like it not skipping ahead on you, and telling you what a colony ship is. I want to get a tip of the day in there, and maybe an in-game FAQ or something.

And then of course the growing list of small wishes, big wishes, small bugs, big bugs… These last couple of days have been maybe too much talking on my part, so I am going to try to balance that more with the actual work of developing the game. Even with a 10 hour workday, I still have 72 unread messages at the moment. It’s a good problem to have! Don’t get me wrong. But it does require me to try and work on time management a bit better.

Expect more tomorrow, and each day this week. We’ve been maintaining a schedule of roughly 3-5 releases a week for a while now, and we don’t expect for that to change anytime soon. Thank you everybody so much for the support, and the kind words, and the positive reviews. It’s making such a big difference to us.

Problem With The Latest Build?

If you right-click the game in Steam and choose properties, then go to the Betas tab of the window that pops up, you’ll see a variety of options. You can always choose most_recent_stable from that build to get what is essentially one-build-back. Or two builds back if the last build had a known problem, etc. Essentially it’s a way to keep yourself off the very bleeding edge of updates, if you so desire.

The Usual Reminders

Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page. If you follow us there, you’ll be notified about any game releases we do.

Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games? It doesn’t have to be much more detailed than a thumbs up, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that’s how you make it happen. Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support.

About Arcen (Ar-ken) Games

Originally known for our unusual and highly effective approach to RTS artificial intelligence in our debut title AI War: Fleet Command, we have since branched out into many other genres and styles of games.

As you can tell by browsing our catalog of titles, our interests are eclectic, and we have a particular affinity for blurring the lines between unlikely genres.